Motherwell boss Jens Berthel Askou is honing in on the target of European football ahead of a crucial encounter with Hibernian.

The Steelmen sit six points above Hibs in fourth place in the William Hill Premiership with only the top four guaranteed European football, unless Celtic win the Scottish Cup.

Askou, whose side are looking to bounce back from consecutive defeats for the second time this season, said: “Obviously top six was a big target because, if you don’t get in the top six after the split, then it’s very, very hard to go into Europe unless you win the Scottish Cup. And we are out of that.

“So obviously we are there now in the top six, and we are in a position in the league where we are trying to reach out for everything we can.

“Obviously, getting into Europe and getting these qualification matches after the summer break is something that we are really ambitious about.”

The Dane is not using the league table as a motivation at this stage, though, as Hibs bid to cut the deficit.

“I know there’s this expression in football that you look up or you look down, because people can understand the context of looking at a...